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Who's Who - Robert Lansing

Robert Lansing (1864-1928)
served as US Secretary of State from 1915-20 in President
Woodrow Wilson's
administration, replacing
William Jennings Bryan who resigned in protest at Wilson's allegedly
hawkish approach to US neutrality in 1915.

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Lansing was born on 17
October 1864 in Watertown, New York. Trained as an international
lawyer (and having started a legal practice in Watertown in 1889), he was
appointed associate counsel in the Bering Sea arbitration in 1892-93, and
thereafter frequently acted as federal counsel at international tribunals.

Appointed counsellor to the
US State Department by President Wilson in April 1914, Lansing became
Secretary of State following Bryan's decision to resign in June 1915 over
what he believed to be Wilson's overly aggressive stance to the German
sinking of the
Lusitania.

Despite Lansing's powerful
new role, Wilson himself chose to determine all major foreign policy
decisions, working in tandem with his close advisor
'Colonel' Edward House,
whom he invariably despatched to Europe to liaise directly with European
governments.

Nevertheless, Lansing did
emphasise to the major belligerent nations - the U.S. being at that stage
officially neutral - the importance of upholding the rights of U.S. vessels
at sea. In particular he strenuously objected to Britain's blockade of
shipping, which notably impacted U.S. trade.

Lansing was also
instrumental in persuading Denmark to sell to the U.S. its islands in the
West Indies; renamed the U.S. Virgin Islands, Lansing believed U.S. control
of these to be important in preventing their falling under German influence.

He was further successful
in securing Wilson's initially sceptical agreement to the provision of
substantial bank loans to the Allied powers from October 1915 onwards.
Increasingly, Lansing viewed an Allied victory as necessary for the defence
of civilised values in addition to viewing Germany as a threat to U.S.
interests.

Once the U.S. had formally
entered the war, Lansing negotiated with the Japanese government the
Lansing-Ishii agreement in 1917, in which the U.S. recognised Japan's
interests in China, securing in return Japanese acceptance of equal trading
rights for all nations there.

Lansing's working
relationship with Wilson plummeted towards the close of the war in 1918, as
Wilson rejected Lansing's advice not to personally attend the
Paris Peace
Conference. Once at Paris Wilson chose to undertake most of the
major policy decisions himself, seldom referring to Lansing.

Lansing held notable
reservations about Wilson's enthusiasm for the
League of Nations. He
argued that securing ratification of the peace treaty was more pressing and
that the case for the League could be made later; Wilson disagreed,
irritated earlier at Lansing's reservations concerning his cherished
Fourteen Points (which Lansing regarded as too vague and insufficiently
pragmatic).

Lansing nevertheless
lobbied Congress to accept both the treaty and the League, ultimately
without success in the latter case (with the Republicans, notably
Henry Cabot Lodge,
energetically and effectively opposing both).

Following Wilson's illness,
beginning September 1919, Lansing played a much larger role in executing
foreign policy; he also conducted numerous Cabinet meetings. Wilson,
feeling that Lansing was acting with undue independence, requested and
received Lansing's resignation in February 1920.

Lansing, one of the
founders of the American Society of International Law, published numerous
books, including works on international law and on the
Versailles treaty.
He died on 30 October 1928 in New York at the age of 64.

Click here to read Lansing's letter regarding the so-called
'Dumba Affair' in 1915;
click here to read Lansing's
position on the subject of shipment of U.S. munitions to Britain;
click here to read Lansing on the subject of Pancho Villa;
click here to read Lansing's
official statement of September 1918 recognising
Tomas Masaryk as the
prospective head of a post-war Czech state;
click here to read Lansing's official statement recognising
Paderewski's Polish government.